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kestrellady · 2 years

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Book Riot's 2023 Read Harder Challenge

Challenge Link

COMPLETE 24/24

My 5th year working on this "get out of your comfort zone" reading challenge.

Full list below the cut.

1. Read a novel about a trans character written by a trans author. Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee I loved the world building in this book and the realities of living in a horrible situation such that you can't always think about how horrible the situation is. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I can't tell if that was on purpose or a set up for a second book.

2. Read one of your favorite author’s favorite books. Frederica by Georgette Heyer I saw someone say that Naomi Novik mentioned this as a favorite and I can see why! It's clever and hilarious in the best Georgette Heyer way. The last chunk had me in stitches!

3. Read a book about activism. Between the World an Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates This is a very personal book, told as a series of letters from the author to his son, about growing up Black and the generational differences he sees between his and his son's generation, about what he's learned about the world, and what he's had to un-learn to love his son better.

4. Read a book that’s been challenged recently in your school district/library OR read one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi This book definitely deserves all the hype. It's very readable and the way it's organized, paralleling the author's own life and journey, makes it very accessible and relatively nonthreatening. I think a lot of people who've bought into the panic would be very surprised by the actual content.

5. Read a completed webcomic. Crumbs by Danie Stirling This was a super cute graphic novel about figuring out what you want from life and learning to tell the difference between what you want for yourself and what the people around you want for you.

6. Finish a book you’ve DNFed (did not finish). Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce I dnf'd this book at about 25% a couple years ago, mainly because I just couldn't get into it. This still isn't quite my thing, but I did feel like it got more interesting as it went along and there was a neat twist at the end.

7. Listen to an audiobook performed by a person of color of a book written by an author of color. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, narrated by Lisa Reneé Pitts This includes the statement from the Combahee River Collective, as well as some interviews with the founders and others reflecting on the Collective and it's impact today. The narrator did a great job reflecting each interviewee's voice.

8. Read a graphic novel/comic/manga if you haven’t before; or read one that is a different genre than you normally read. The Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman I read lots of manga and I've been getting into comics, but this was my first foray into DC. The volume I read had the first three Sandman arcs and I definitely want to keep reading, though I might not watch the Netflix series.

9. Read an independently published book by a BIPOC author. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer This is an incredibly beautiful book of essays looking at nature through both the scientific and indigenous lenses and finding the places they overlap and complement and how listening to nature can help us move to a better future.

10. Read a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover. The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected on Water by Zen Cho This was a short read about a group of bandits contractors trying to deliver some religious relics to a prospective buyer... and dealing with the nun they accidentally picked up on the way. The world building is lush and evocative and I really enjoyed it!

11. Read a cookbook cover to cover. The Sad Bastard Cookbook by Rachel A. Rosen, Zilla Novikov with Marten Norr (Illustrator) This is a fantastic (and funny!) little cookbook of meals you can make from stuff in your cabinets when you have no energy to cook. I'm already looking forward to adding some of these to my cooking rotation. And it's available online for free!

12. Read a nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history. The 1619 Project created and edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones This is the book form of the New York Times Sunday edition from 2019 that commemorated the first arrival of enslaved people in the British American colonies, expanded and updated/revised. It was a good balance between longer essays that take you step by step through American history with shorter essays that focus in tighter on particular moments and topics. A must read to really understand why the US is the way it is.

13. Read an author local to you. The Eye of the Mammoth: Selected Essays, by Stephen Harrigan I actually got to meet Harrigan when he came to one of my undergrad classes and he talked about one of the essays included in this collection. This collection spans 30+ years of his writings, with many of the essays focusing on Texas and nature. I think I would have like to see a year for each essay, since it was sometimes difficult to pin down when he was writing.

14. Read a book with under 500 Goodreads ratings. The Holver Alley Crew by Marshall Ryan Maresca This is the first book in the third of the set of interconnected Maradaine series. It took a little longer for me to get into than the other books, probably because the cast is a lot bigger, but was still a fun read.

15. Read a historical fiction book set in an Eastern country. The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki A family trying to marry off the two youngest sisters in 1930s Japan. Largely slice of life, but with a fairly abrupt, slightly odd ending. (Also, I don't really like this prompt. What's "Eastern country" supposed to be? If you mean Asian, say Asian.)

16. Read a romance with bisexual representation. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #2) This was such a fun murder mystery on a cruise ship with magic. I loved the first book and was looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint!

17. Read a YA book by an Indigenous author. Harvest House by Cynthia Leitich Smith A spooky mystery with a great twist at the end. I really liked all the references and homages to other works, mostly horror, but also Rain is Not My Indian Name, which I loved as a kid and didn't realize was by the same author.

18. Read a comic or graphic novel that features disability representation. Monstress, Vol. 7: Devourer by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda This is a fantastic dark epic fantasy series. It's got gods and monsters and politics and a disabled main character doing her best to save the world rather than destroy it.

19. Read a nonfiction book about intersectional feminism. Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks A short, easy to read primer on the history, goals, and struggles of the feminist movement. bell hooks is one of the must read authors for anyone interested in the subject.

20. Read a book of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author. An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo I really enjoyed this collection by an American Poet Laureate. These poems were interspersed with memories and histories of Harjo's Mvskoke people and often in conversation with other works.

21. Read a book of short stories. The Moon Over the Mountain and Other Stories by Atsushi Nakajima, Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner A book of historical Chinese stories written by a Japanese author. Some of these I really enjoyed and some kind of meandered. I was glad I'd read an abridged Journey to the West and had that context.

22. Read any book from the Ignyte awards shortlist/longlist/winner list. Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard Short fantasy novelette about a spare princess trying to figure out her place at court after being returned from being a child hostage. The setting was really neat and I would have loved getting more of the politics of the world.

23. Read a social horror, mystery, or thriller novel. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff This is a novel made up of short stories with an overarching plot. It was so good! I think I'm missing a lot of the references, since I've never done a lot of classic sci-fi or horror, but it was still really good. Each short story focuses on a different character, so it was interesting to see all the different backstories and outlooks.

24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat! A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa I read this one for my reading around the world challenge, but I'm repurposing it here for the 2015 Read Harder prompt #19, a book originally written in another language.

#Reading challenge #kestrel reads #books #reading #book riot #read harder

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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On the first day of the new Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) delivered one of the nominating speeches for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was seeking the House Speakership. Jordan bemoaned a “government that has been weaponized” against the American people and called for greater accountability. The next day, during a second round of failed votes for McCarthy, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the leader of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, voiced a similar sentiment but in opposing McCarthy: “Washington is broken… We have an administration that has contempt for the American people.” Though the two men were on different sides in this battle royal, they were united in hypocrisy, for each of these decriers of abusive power had been collaborators in Donald Trump’s public crusade to promote the lies about the 2020 election that led to the January 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol and in Trump’s devious plotting to overturn the election and upend American democracy.

Their roles in the House GOP’s crapshow illustrated a profound fact largely overlooked in this hullabaloo: The political chaos that brought the House of Representatives to a standstill was being perpetuated by a party that two years earlier had tried to sabotage the republic and had championed falsehoods and conspiracy theories that led to seditious violence in the very chamber where the Speakership fight was now occurring. Of the 222 Republicans currently in the House GOP caucus, 119 had on January 6, 2021, after the Trump-incited riot, affirmed the false charge of a stolen election by voting to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory. This group included most of the anti-McCarthy bloc, among them Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Ralph Norman, who in January 2021 texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that Trump should consider “Marshall Law” to remain in office. And this group included McCarthy.

The GOP civil war in the House was being fought over whether to elevate an election denier who had helped spread the Big Lie that spurred violence to a position that is second in the line of presidential succession. Yet McCarthy’s participation in that assault on democracy was not an issue. For Republicans, it was a prerequisite.

Though most Republicans elected to the new Congress share culpability for January 6 and the failed effort to blow up the 2020 election, Perry and Jordan stand out for their significant participation in Trump’s anti-constitutional and arguably criminal caper.

The House January 6 committee’s report details Perry as a key conspirator in one of Trump’s plots to reverse the election. After the 2020 election was called, Perry was a prominent cheerleader of Trump’s fraudulent claim the election had been stolen from him. He was one of 27 Republican House members who signed a letter requesting that Trump “direct Attorney General Barr to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate irregularities in the 2020 election.” He attended a December 21 Oval Office meeting with at least 10 other congressional Republicans to discuss a strategy for objecting to the electoral college votes on January 6. And with 125 other House Republicans, he supported Texas’ lawsuit that called for throwing out the votes of Pennsylvania and three other states.

But Perry outdid other GOP election deniers with his behind-the-scenes scheming to corrupt the Justice Department.

In late December 2020, after Barr resigned (having told Trump privately and stated publicly there was no evidence of any significant electoral fraud), Trump relentlessly leaned on the Justice Department—mainly, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy, Richard Donoghue—to affirm his baseless assertion that the election had been rigged. They resisted and repeatedly told Trump the allegations of fraud were untrue. Trump was not getting what he wanted from the department.

This is where Perry came in. He found a Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark who was running the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Clark had nothing to do with investigating the allegations of election fraud, but he was willing to echo and legitimize Trump’s false charges. Perry introduced Clark to Trump, arranging a meeting between the two in the Oval Office on December 22. As the January 6 Committee noted, “Clark’s contact with President Trump violated both Justice Department and White House policies designed to prevent political pressure on the Department.”

Perry also sent numerous text messages to Meadows urging that Clark be promoted within the department, presumably to a position in which he could compel the Justice Department to assist Trump’s bid to retain power. In one message, Perry referred to the upcoming certification of the electoral vote and declared, “11 days to 1/6… We gotta get going!”

Though Rosen and Donoghue ordered Clark to have no further contact with Trump, Clark continued to meet with Trump and Perry. Perry also directly confronted the Justice Department about its refusal to back up Trump’s false allegations. He called Donoghue on December 27 and assailed the FBI and the department for not finding evidence of election fraud. He added that “Clark would do something about this.”

That night, Perry emailed Donoghue material alleging that election authorities in Pennsylvania had counted 200,000 or so more votes than had been cast—a claim that he and Trump raised publicly. No such thing had happened. Perry was spreading disinformation in an attempt to disenfranchise the voters of his own state.

Meanwhile, Clark—Perry’s man at the Justice Department—was pushing an underhanded plan to keep Trump in power. This included proposing to send a letter to the state legislature of Georgia—and those of other swing states—that falsely declared that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.” The letter recommended that the state legislature call a special session to evaluate potential election fraud. The draft of this letter referred to the fake electors that Trump and his campaign had organized.

When Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign this letter, Trump moved to boot Rosen and replace him with Clark. At a combative Oval Office meeting on January 3, Rosen, Donoghue, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and others strenuously opposed Clark’s appointment and told Trump it would lead to massive resignations at the department. Only then did Trump retreat on appointing Clark acting attorney general. This attempt to enlist the Justice Department for a coup was over.

The Trump-Clark scheme, in which Perry was a major plotter, was cited by the House January 6 committee in its final report as one basis for its criminal referral of Trump and others. And apparently Perry had some concerns for his own legal safety. According to the committee, after January 6, he reached out to White House staff and asked to receive a presidential pardon. (He did not receive one.)

In August, the FBI seized Perry’s cell phone, presumably as part of its investigation of the Trump-Clark operation. Perry claimed he was told he was not the subject of an investigation. The January 6 committee subpoenaed Perry, but he refused to show up for a deposition, and the committee subsequently referred him to the House Ethics Committee for sanction for failing to comply with the subpoena.

As for Jim Jordan, the January 6 committee declared he was “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts.” It noted:

"He participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the election had been tainted by fraud. On January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session. During that call, the group also discussed issuing social media posts encouraging President Trump’s supporters to ‘march to the Capitol’ on the 6th."

The committee’s report points out that Jordan was in touch with Meadows and Trump in the days before the January 6 riot. On January 5, he texted Meadows that Vice President Mike Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.” That is, Jordan was urging an unconstitutional action to achieve a Trump power-grab that would thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

On January 6, Jordan spoke with Trump at least twice, and, according to the committee, “he has provided inconsistent public statements about how many times they spoke and what they discussed.” He also spoke to Rudy Giuliani at least twice in the hours after the riot, as Giuliani continued to encourage members of Congress to block the certification of the election. In the following days, the committee noted, Jordan discussed with White House staffers the prospect of presidential pardons for members of Congress.

Like Perry, Jordan was subpoenaed by the January 6 committee and refused to cooperate, earning a referral to the House Ethics Committee—as did McCarthy. The committee wanted information from McCarthy regarding his conversations with Trump and Pence on and about January 6. He, too, would not cooperate.

As the McCarthy drama has played out, critical participants have been election deniers who not long ago sought to undermine democracy and whose actions led to the domestic terrorism of January 6. McCarthy’s foes, his defenders, and McCarthy himself all were part of the efforts to subvert the Constitution following Biden’s victory. Moreover, whatever happens with McCarthy, these enemies of democracy will end up with important positions in the House. Jordan is expected to become chair of the Judiciary Committee. Perry will likely remain chair of the House Freedom Caucus, which will continue as a band of extremists and plague whichever Republican becomes speaker. This absurd speakership fight is a reminder that Republicans who tried to annihilate the constitutional order and who bolstered conspiracy theories and lies that ignited violence have attained power and influence. The guilty have been rewarded.

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copperfirebird · 11 months

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My Dragons: Doxen

It being the Riot of Rot and all, I've been thinking about my second progen. She was my "randomly assigned" second egg. I named her Doxen because… I don't remember the exact thought process, but I figured it went well with Jaxen and I was a little distrated. (This was back when there were narrow registration windows, and one happened to open the night my spouse went into labor with our kid, so I was mostly poking around and figuring the game out in weird little blocks of time in the hospital between helping and waiting.)

Being a new dad and thinking new dad feelings, I almost immediately made up a little storyline in my head about their firsthatch, Rosen, being Daddy's Little Lab Assistant, and Doxen was sort of my Designated Test Dragon for a while when I was playing with changing species or colors or whatever. For a while she wore a really cool plague skin. But I didn't really think much about clan lore or anything, just a vague mad science family to fit the mad science aesthetic of Lightning.

And then a couple of years ago out of the blue (or probably not out of the blue, but at least without any prior indication it would come up) I ended up with this whole storyline about Rosen's best friend, a found Guardian who'd grown up alongside her and then been cast out by her dad (mass exalted because I was overwhelmed by the number of dragons in my lair) and then Rosen realized Jaxen had been hurting her mom all these years with all of his mutations on her and she up and moved over to Light, and this gave Doxen the strength/motivation to leave (when the hibernal den was introduced and I could get Jaxen and Doxen both out without having to exalt my progens) and she settled in Plague, and at some point acquired a little group of other dragons who've left their clans and need a place to regroup and understand the toxicity they had been mired in.

Now Doxen watches over her people from a lair on the outskirts of the Blight Sanctum. Sometimes dragons come to her for a few weeks to recover, and sometimes they stay much longer. She introduced a pair of young herbalists who wanted to leave the Plaguebarrens to Rosen at one point, and she and her daughter are in regular contact, though they are still not close. She views the work she does now as her calling, a combination of therapy, life coaching and protective services.

Doxen's storyline and spirituality is influenced by my monsterwork, experience leaving an abusive relationship, fascination with mycorrhiza, and understanding of the importance of rot and decay in the cycles of all things.

#flight rising #domestic abuse #yes I used the dragon game to process trauma #my dragons #fr mirror

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thechanelmuse · 2 years

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So there’s these Jews...

in my family tree. Chile...

This is one of the wildest shits I’ve come across.

In the midst of chattel enslaved people classified as negroes or mulattoes building the United States from scratch and generating the country’s longstanding economy through forced free labor, Simon (an Ashkenazi Jew)

and Philipena (a Sephardic Jew)

scurried their asses to the "Golden Land of America” for opportunities, to escape persecution and whatever other shit was going on in Europe. That same ol’ raggedy ass, worn out line still used today. Anyway. They made their way to Ellis Island before it closed down, settled in New Jersey for a hot moment before moving to South Carolina because Philipena peeped Simon getting involved with Russian anarchists. His comfort zone.

Now why SC? There were Jews there like in other southern states, but high in number for Sephardic Jews like Philipena (my guess since she picked it). Simon opened a business called Simon Brown’s Sons, making shoes and boots; helped to establish a Sabbath school in Augusta, Georgia that he would send his kids too; owned $7,600 in real estate (about $160,000 in 2022 dollars); and was a “farmer” aka he owned enslaved negroes and mulattoes who labored the land that would eventually amass to 5,000 acres after enslavement. Did I mention he enlisted in the Confederate Army but was later captured by the Union after stomping with Robert E. Lee?

Don’t take this as the Union being the “good guys.” Their hands been dirty and bloody too. After all they’re the ones who created the Devil’s Punchbowl concentration camp in Mississippi to starve and curb the population of over 20,000 negro and mulatto women and children who were then classified under the federal status, U.S. Freedmen, which the descendants (Black Americans) are still under today. Oh wait. Rewind. Did I mention that Phillipena shielded their house from being torched by Union soldiers during the Civil War by waving a masonic flag from the porch? Yes, bitch. Them people. The commanding officer spotted the sign and rerouted.

Simon’s ass is in three books, including The Jewish Confederates by Robert N. Rosen, Dark Hours: South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors, and Citizens Held in Captivity during the War of Southern Independence, 1861-1865 by Randolph W. Kirkland, Jr and a Virginia Encyclopedia about his capture at The Battle of the Weldon Railroad.

Him and them sons of his were featured in a number of newspapers (I’ve counted 20 so far) after some shit popped off. It’s featured in the book, Carnival of Blood - Dueling, Lynching and Murder in SC 1880 -1920 by John Hammond Moore.

So what happened?

John Gribben, an Irish immigrant in his 40s who was the town marshal, wasn’t fond of Jews. He would post letters about his feelings and pry open and search through Simon’s deliveries. Looking for what? Liquor. On Aug 28, 1894, John pried into the clothes package of Simon’s 22-year-old son, Solomon. Simon pulled up on John, accusing him of persecution before they got to loudly arguing. Simon’s three sons rolled up leading John to tell them he would beat all their asses.

Twenty-year-old Isadore stepped up beating John’s ass “against the wall of Geo. A Still’s store,” per one of the news articles. How would John get out of this one? Pistols were drawn and them crackas had a whole shootout like they were in a western. John caught one to the left shoulder and another near the heart, entering the left lung. Mothafucka staggered and died in the store he got his ass beat on the wall of. Solomon caught a head shot, one in the chest and one directly to the heart. Signed sealed and delivered to their makers. Au revoir.

That trial was a damn riot. Not a literal riot just wild. Simon’s son, Herman, was on trial for being the one whose gun delivered the kill shots to John with Simon and Isadore listed as the accessaries. A news article about the trial delves into and I quote “the influential Brown family” history. So you know how that trial went. Acquitted. That wouldn’t be their last case like this one involving the damn South Carolina Supreme Court. I don’t even have the energy to read it. More shenanigans.

Did I mention that that side of family tree ends up dipping into the Rothschild tree? Them people. I just…

So how does my 3rd grandmother end up in the picture after emancipation bringing forth a child by one of them sons? It wasn’t by choice. You catch my drift...

#every time somebody brings up jews my mind goes directly to this 🙃

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blood-starved-beast · 2 years

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Turns out the situation at riot is worse than imagined. A lot of long-serving creatives have left within the past half-year. This includes Jared Rosen, one of the lead lore writers whose responsible for a lot of the lore behind monster champions. What the fuck is going on over at the Executive department at Riot???

#League of Legends #d musings

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unitedstatessenate · 9 months

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Reuters

Voters split with upcoming election season; RESTRICT Act passed in historic unanimity

In a recent investigation carried out by AP-NORC, an independent political research group, it has been revealed 30% of Republican voters have indicated strong confidence in their Republican Senators in winning the upcoming election season, whilst 40% of Democrat voters are confident in their party winning the election season. In a historic vote and a show of unity by the Senate, a complete unanimous vote was given to passing the RESTRICT Act. This Act serves to mitigate foreign threats in a move towards national security.

The rocky Senate hearings from yesterday has sparked great controversy, with TikTokers taking to various platforms in protest. However, the Presidential Office has enacted to put TikTok on hold indefinitely, as Americans await President Joe Biden’s approval towards this Act. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has requested an emergency meeting with their American counterparts, and as such, it awaits to be seen what the President has to say. ByteDance has released a statement declaring this a sign of “American paranoia”.

The Alaskan citizens, who are represented by Senator Sullivan, have taken to the streets in protest towards what has been pushed in the Senate Floor. Protestors have been seen marching with signs reading “warmonger”, “peace over war” and the like. While riot police have been clashing with said protestors, political theorists claim this is a warning towards the more aggressive stance the Senate chooses to take. In addition, Americans faced delays with multiple social media sites, including that of Meta, X and Instagram, amidst a DDOS attack by an unidentified group of hackers, who have printed the message “Down with Rosen '' across all affected websites. This issue has been fixed last night. Trends across non-affected sites, such as Reddit, have shown interest towards Senators, such as that of Senator Kennedy, towards their stance on the SAFE TECH Act.

Bloomberg, a major international trading company, has also denounced this action, particularly towards the Democratic Senators. They have officially ended their countless years of collaboration with the Democratic Party, stating that “what has been discussed would greatly affect the international economy, to levels far beyond that the Senators have considered”. Investors from Citadel, a multinational hedge fund, have collectively banded together to write an open letter, citing that “the Republicans are instigating an imminent global financial collapse whilst pushing for their selfish agendas''. However, Republicans have noticeably received greater support in their recent party rally, as conservative voters flock to donate and show their support. In Senator Blumenthal’s recent public debates, he struggled to answer questions from his voters regarding his stance towards China, leading to a slight decrease in support. In Senator Hickenlooper’s meet-and-greet sessions, he declared an overwhelming victory by the Democrats over the Republicans being reflected in the RESTRICT Act, which was responded with cheers by the locals. Finally, in Senator Heinrich’s recent interview with Fox News’ interviewer Jesse Watters, he was questioned as towards the legitimacy of his actions, particularly those of his policy towards China and TikTok. While he gave a strong rebuttal on that, when asked on whether he could comment on the bipartisan dynamics, he struggled to give a concrete response. Mr Watters followed up by asking whether such an act of bipartisanship could be mirrored towards the Democrats’ approval of Republicans as a whole, in which Mr Heinrich requested to cut the interview short.

Regardless, the Senate now moves on to the SAFE TECH Act next, discussing repealing Section 230 as a whole. As the nation awaits the upcoming debate and public hearings, Senators scramble to organise their party.

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kudosmyhero · 1 year

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Daredevil (vol. 1) #70: The Tribune

Read Date: November 22, 2022 Cover Date: November 1970 ● Writer: Gary Friedrich ● Penciler: Gene Colan ● Inker: Syd Shores ● Colorist: {uncredited} ● Letterer: Sam Rosen ● Editor: Stan Lee ●

Reactions As I Read: ● Gene Colan and Syd Shores are a dream team when it comes to art. ● This issue is 52 years old and the rhetoric being spewed by the Tribune is still being spewed today. ● I like that they're taking a deeper look into the court side of Matt's and Foggy's lives, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. I know, big surprise, right? I mean… it does show weeks going by, which is accurate. The part that gives me pause is, doesn't the district attorney have the power of whether or not to prosecute a case? It's obvious that Foggy and Matt know these kids are innocent and that any "evidence" is circumstantial and sparse.

Synopsis: Far right motion picture star Buck Ralston has made an appearance on Hollywood Boulevard to speak to a crowd about his perceived lack of patriotism in America. After engaging Karen Page in a debate on Patriotism to the level of extremism, Buck Ralston leaves to plot how to get back at the "pinkos" he perceives are ruining American society.

While in New York, DD becomes involved in controlling a riot which has broken out at the New York Hilton between the police and protesters during the Vice President's visit to the city. While back on the west coast, we learn that Ralston is taking the law into his own hands as the costumed judge, jury and executioner known as the Tribune and has his goons round up hippies that he finds treasonous and executes them with his energy blasting gavel.

Tribune has some of his men plant explosives at the Hilton in New York in hopes that hippies will be blamed, hoping it will "wake up" America, however this plan is made complicated with the involvement of Daredevil. While DD fails to stop the bomb from detonating, he prevents it from hurting anyone, even though one of the protesters checking on DD gets arrested.

The young men arrested on a bum rap (dubbed the "New York Three") regarding the explosion, get the attention of Tribune who plans to go to New York to execute them, while Foggy and Matt prepare to (begrudgingly) represent the city in court and prove their guilt, even though both feel that the New York Three are innocent.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil_Vol_1_70)

Fan Art: Avacados At Law by ParallelPenguins

Accompanying Podcast: ● Josh and Jamie Do Daredevil - episode 09

#marvel #marvel comics #my marvel read #podcast recommendation #podcast - josh and jamie do daredevil #comics #comic books #daredevil #matt murdock #fan art #fanart

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malenipshadows · 3 years

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+ Miller will tell the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday (5-12-23021) that he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the building could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings, according to a copy of prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. + His testimony, in the latest in a series of congressional hearings centered on the riot, is aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive, even as pro-Tr*mp rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside. + Miller will be joined by former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who is also testifying for the first time about the Justice Department's role in the run-up to the riot.Miller will say he was determined that the military have only limited involvement, a perspective he says was shaped by criticism of the aggressive

response to the civil unrest that roiled American cities months earlier, as well as decades-old episodes that ended in violence. + The Defense Department has “an extremely poor record in supporting domestic law enforcement," including during civil rights and Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s and the fatal shooting 51 years ago of four students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard members, Miller says in his prepared remarks. “I was committed to avoiding repeating these scenarios," he says. + Miller also denies that former pres-ident Donald Tr*mp, criticized for failing to forcefully condemn the rioters, had any involvement in the Defense Department's response. + Miller will be the most senior Pentagon official to participate in hearings on the riots. The sessions so far have featured finger-pointing about missed intelligence, poor preparations and an inadequate law enforcement response. The Capitol Police have faced criticism for being badly overmatched, the FBI for failing to share with sufficient urgency intelligence suggesting a possible “war” at the Capitol, and the Defense Department for an hourslong delay in getting support to the complex despite the violent, deadly chaos unfolding on TV.

#donald dunce #another court denies crooked donald bid to void 2020 presidential election results #bogus claims of 2020 U.S. presidential election fraud #tr*mp WH most corrupt regime in U.S. history #tr*mp lies constantly #Drumpf is worst US president ever #Drumpf administration a disaster believe me #Drumpf is Putin's best weapon against democracy #Putin's puppet #after emigrating from Germany Drumpf changed named to Tr*mp #Tr*mp foments U.S. Capitol riots #Tr*mp foments insurrection at U.S. Capitol #u.s. capitol siege #disparate treatment for mostly White rioters at U.S. Capitol #Christopher Miller former acting defense secretary under Drumpf #Jeffrey Rosen former acting attorney general under Drumpf

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filosofablogger · 3 years

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A Bombshell That Few Noticed

Last week, we found out that the former guy had instructed then-acting-attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen.” I saw this headline in numerous news sites that I visit daily, and like most of the rest of you, I growled a bit, called him a few choice names, then moved on to other stories. But as Robert Reich points out ……

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#AG Jeffrey Rosen #attempted coup #Capitol riots 01-06-2021 #congressional republicans #Donald Trump #Robert Reich #U.S. Constitution #U.S. Department of Justice #William Barr

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yourreddancer · 2 years

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The ex-officials in question include Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, and Steven Engel. Rosen was acting Attorney General, Donoghue was acting Deputy Attorney General, and Engel was Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. That position means that Engel led the office. “As previewed by Thompson/Cheney, the men will discuss Trump’s efforts hold onto power by weaponizing the Justice Dept,” New York Times reporter Katie Benner shared alongside a copy of a letter from Rosen’s current law firm informing the riot committee that “relevant authorities, including the Department of Justice, have now authorized Mr. Rosen to proceed.”

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news-of-the-day · 2 years

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6/28/22

At least 16 are dead from the missile attack on the shopping center in the Ukraine yesterday, but there are still many missing. Russia is denying responsibility for the attack.

Here's an example on why it's hard to isolate Russia: Sri Lanka is quite simply completely screwed. It’s an island nation that can't provide for itself so it needs to import, but it has no money to buy stuff. They're running out of fuel. Well, Russia is willing to sell fuel for cheap, and now it has a customer.

It's the primaries today in NY, the biggest one being Governor Hochul defending her seat. Today is solely for the governor and state assembly, but the House had to be rescheduled to August because the Democrats gerrymandered the districts, which a judge later struck down and they had to scramble to remake it and allow time for campaigning.

Louisiana and Utah passed laws a long time ago to ban abortion that would enact the moment Roe v. Wade was overturned, but the courts blocked it.

You may recall a few weeks ago I mentioned a lawyer by the name of John Eastman, who is accused of knowingly giving false legal counsel to Trump about negating the 2020 results. The FBI seized his phone as well as searched the house of Jeffrey Clark. Trump pressured then acting Attorney General Rosen to declare election fraud and urge states to overturn the results, to which Rosen refused. Clark, a lawyer in the Justice Department, approached Trump and seemed amenable to doing that, and Trump mulled over firing Rosen and replacing him with Clark. However many lawyers in the Justice Department stated there would be another Saturday Night Massacre if Trump did that, so he held off.

46-50 people are dead after being crammed in a truck in Texas to cross the border. It's currently over 100° there. A little over dozen people survived and are hospitalized.

49-51 prisoners died during a riot in Colombia. It seems fires were set and many died from smoke inhalation.

1) The Guardian 2) WSJ 3) Politico, NPR 4) NYT 5) Washington Post, Axios 6) Reuters 7) Reuters

Someone asked me about perhaps a ratifying a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, and it’s pretty much impossible. There are two methods of making an amendment: Step one is either two-thirds of both congressional chambers agree on it, or two-thirds of the state legislatures call for a national convention to make it. (The latter has never happened.) Considering Republicans control 50 seats in the Senate and 210 seats in the House, that’s not happening.

Regardless of whatever method you choose for step one, step two is three-quarters of the state legislatures have to ratify it. Here’s a map of the state legislatures:

Source: Wikipedia

Clearly three-quarters of the country is not going to approve of an amendment promoting abortion.

#news #ask #war in ukraine #roe v wade #abortion

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96thdayofrage · 3 years

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As of this writing, 695 people have been charged for federal crimes related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach—crimes motivated by the lie that Joe Biden won because of nationwide election fraud. Of those 695 people, not one has been charged with sedition, defined in the US Code as two or more people conspiring to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy” the government, “prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law,” or “by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States.”

January 6 defendants came armed with bats and bear spray and stun devices and guns and zip ties, aiming to overthrow the election by any means necessary. They called for the execution of the vice president. They assaulted law enforcement, bludgeoning officers with American flagpoles and police barricades. They stormed the Senate floor, stole mementos, and seized government files. They told us what they were there to do—for weeks ahead of time, in some cases—and they very nearly did it.

But no one has been charged with sedition, because America does not talk about violent expressions of white supremacy as sedition. Even when it manifests as a coup against America itself.

Not every person who stormed the Capitol is enrolled in a white supremacist group, but one does not need to avow white supremacy to be its surrogate. What other ideology imbues a mob with the power to besiege the citadel of American democracy and attempt to usurp an election, all in the name of "patriotism"?

"I was listening to Infowars and I was, like, getting patriotic," said Daniel Rodriguez, who tased DC police officer Michael Fanone during the breach. "We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save the Constitution, and the election, the integrity." Rodriguez, who helpfully described himself to federal prosecutors as a "piece of shit," was indicted not on sedition but on more technical charges like obstruction of an official proceeding, along with theft and destruction of government property.

No one has been charged with sedition, because America does not talk about violent expressions of white supremacy as sedition.

"My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong," claimed Rodriguez.

Yet his story is part of an American tradition that casts white supremacy as well-meaning patriotism gone awry, instead of as an ideology antithetical to our best aspirations. But "negro sedition," as one 1919 newspaper put in the headline of an article warning of "physicalâ€¦opposition to the government," has always been viewed as anti-American. Take George Ware, an aide to civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael and an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In August 1967, Ware was arrested in Tennessee on a warrant charging him with sedition for comments he'd made at a Black school in Nashville: "Black people must achieve power by whatever means necessary, including violence."

A week after Ware's arrest, Rep. William Cramer, a Republican from Florida, spoke before Congress in support of HR 421, also known as the "anti-riot bill." "Outside agitators are using interstate commerce to incite or encourage riots and apparently on a planned, premeditated basis," he said, assailing Ware and Carmichael as "symbols of the revolution and rebellion that many others are preaching and practicing."

A grand jury declined to indict Ware, but the appraisal of Black dissent as sedition that landed him in jail for a week has not waned. In the aftermath of protests over George Floyd's murder, Trump Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen suggested charging protesters with sedition, highlighting a hypothetical example of a group that "has conspired to take a federal courthouse or other federal property by force."

Even being white does not provide full protection against sedition charges-especially when the white person is advocating for Black Americans. In 1835, Reuben Crandall, a white New York physician and alleged member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was arrested in Washington, DC, for publishing and circulating material pushing "seditious libel and inciting slaves and free blacks to revolt."

One newspaper warned that Crandall was "exciting the minds of negroes against whites"; another demonized him as a harbinger of violence toward white citizens. After his arrest at the hands of district attorney and "Star-Spangled Banner" composer Francis Scott Key, a lynch mob gathered. Quick intervention by the mayor saved Crandall's life, but the crowd still got its fix by launching a multiday assault against the city's free Black people.

When Crandall's trial began, the Sedition Act of 1798-created to prosecute critics of Federalist policies-had long since expired. That did not stop Key from indicting Crandall on five counts of seditious libel, claiming he had violated common law. It was the first time an American had been charged with sedition for inciting insurrection among Black people, enslaved or free.

Crandall was eventually acquitted, but not before spending eight months in jail and contracting a fatal case of tuberculosis. During the trial, Key asked the jurors to understand the threat of anti-slavery literature: "What are these writings?â€¦They declare thatâ€¦we have no more rights over our slaves than they have over us. Does not this bring the constitution and the laws under which we live into contempt? Is it not a plain invitation to resist them?"

After months of smearing election administrators in predominately African American cities, Trump took the mic at the rally just before the Capitol siege to issue a similar, if less articulate, plea to his disciples: "If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country because it's illegal, when the votes are illegal, when the way that they got there is illegal, when the states that vote are given false and fraudulent information."

"My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong."

Using a string of euphemisms for Black vote, Trump spread racist lies. "The problem is Fulton County, home of Stacey Abrams," he said. "Why wouldn't they let us verify signatures at Fulton County, which is known for being very corruptâ€¦They go to some other county where you would liveâ€¦We won't have a country if it happens." (Note his use of "we" and "you" and "us.") "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," Trump said. "After this, we're going to walk down and I'll be there with youâ€¦we're going to walk down to the Capitol."

When the rioters arrived at the Capitol, they, like Trump, granted no legitimacy to ballots cast for Biden by Black Americans. "I voted for Joe Biden," Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn recalled telling insurgents as he confronted them inside the building. "Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?" He was met with jeers. "You hear that, guys?" he remembers a woman wearing a pink maga shirt shouting from a mob of about 20 rioters. "This nigger voted for Joe Biden."

No one had ever called officer Dunn that word while he was in uniform until it was done in the name of patriotism by rioters carrying banners bearing memes and symbols of white supremacy. There's a consistency in calling Colin Kaepernick a traitor for kneeling to protest police brutality during the National Anthem and calling officer Dunn a "nigger." The people who say such things believe they alone are the true adherents to the spirit of the lyrics written by Francis Scott Key.

And what can happen when sedition charges are brought against white people? In 1987, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., the founder of the Carolina Knights of the KKK and the White Patriot Party, was indicted for conspiracy to acquire stolen military weapons, robbery, and the attempted assassination of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees. Miller made a deal with federal prosecutors that allowed him to escape sedition charges. But in exchange for a five-year sentence (he served only three), Miller agreed to testify against 14 other white supremacists who would be charged with sedition in a 1988 trial in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Defendants included Richard Snell, who was already in prison for the murder of a pawn shop owner whom Snell had mistakenly thought to be of Jewish descent, as well as the slaying of a Black Arkansas state trooper. (Snell also had a major role in perpetuating false drug-running conspiracy claims that swirled around Bill Clinton.) Three other defendants were leaders of white supremacist groups: Robert Miles, former grand dragon of the KKK in Michigan; Richard Butler, head of an Idaho Aryan Nations chapter; and Louis Ray Beam Jr., a former grand dragon of the Texas Klan. Prosecutors sought to prove that, among other things, 10 of the defendants were guilty of seditious conspiracy, and five had plotted to murder a federal judge and an FBI agent as part of a plan to establish a white nation in the Pacific Northwest.

The prosecution had 113 witnesses and FBI wiretap transcripts capturing the accused coordinating about stockpiling weapons and conducting armored car robberies, assassinations, and municipal sabotage. Before the verdict, the judge told the jury, "The fact that you may think it was impossible for the defendants to overthrow the government is not a defense to the charge."

Despite that instruction and mountains of evidence, the 14 white supremacists were acquitted by an all-white jury. One juror went on to marry a defendant; another told a reporter he agreed with many of the white supremacists' ideas. But what may have sealed the acquittal was that the jury did not find the argument that the defendants were dangerous credible. In other words, they did not believe white supremacy was a coherent pathway to topple the American government-or they did not care if it was.

Miller's brush with the law left him unchanged; in 2014, he would be arrested for murdering three people in an anti-Semitic attack in Kansas. Snell was executed for his earlier charges on April 19, 1995, the same day Timothy McVeigh blew up Oklahoma City's federal building, which Snell had previously plotted to bomb himself. While McVeigh, also a white supremacist, was indicted on 11 counts, sedition wasn't one. He was executed in 2001.

If those who assaulted the Capitol are not charged with crimes that equate them as anti-American, what, in the name of America, might they do next?

Republicans who tolerate claims of a rigged election may not espouse allegiance to the Capitol insurrection itself, but they display alignment with its ends. Their gambit is that Trump and his disciples are their political life force-something to pledge fidelity to even if it means the obliteration of democracy, the Constitution, and the star-spangled banner. Here we might remember another thing Francis Scott Key said to the jury in Crandall's trial:

"All men," he told them, "must be supposed to intend what it is the evident tendency of their doctrines to accomplish."

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astringofmadhousefloozies · 3 years

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Hobbies and Holidays, Or The Halloween Fic

Yes, I know it’s June. I just like Halloween, man. Yuu’s quiet dedication to the finest of holidays sours when confronted with assholes who fuck around for clout.

Contains coarse language, attempted violence, sexuality and nerds being nerds. As always, if you enjoyed it or have any questions, let me know! I like talking with people.

~*~*~*~

"What's cooking?" Ace, cheery as could be, walked his way up towards your set up on the Ramshackle front lawn. "Is it curry? I hope it's curry."

"You might not want to stand downwind." You poked at the bubbling mess on the propane stove, sweat rolling down your back. A beautiful August day, perfect for your project. This sure as hell wasn't something you wanted to do indoors.

"Whaddya mean by that?" The breeze shifted towards him, and he turned an impressive shade of green, stumbling back with his nose covered. "What's in there?"

"Mice. I told you to keep upwind." You went in with a hand strainer, and scooped a pile of tiny bones onto a ratty towel.

"Why are you boiling mice?"

You mirrored his are-you-goddamned-stupid-or-something face back at him. "I wanted the bones. I went to Sam, but he said he's not allowed to order in dermestid beetles after last time, so I gotta do it the old-fashioned way."

"That's absolutely disgusting,” her said, the disgust and disbelief plain on his face.

"Don't we all know. Grimm fucked right off when the ghosts showed me the mouse graveyard."

"And your first thought at a pile of rotten mice was 'ooo, free bones' like some kinda crazy necromancer?"

"Yup." You scooped out another pile of bones. If you left them in there too long, they'd simply dissolve like in a cooked fish. As it was, you'd have to find a way to strengthen them. Maybe dip them in resin?

"Why am I your friend, again?"

"Because you feel responsible for me."

"Yeah. And you're fun when you aren't being weird and doing shit like taking cemetery pictures."

"I'll stop taking the pictures when I stop finding good grave iconography."

"Yeah, weird. I'm going to leave you to be a gross little maggot by yourself today."

"I'm not eating them."

"They're stewing in a pot."

"To get the meat off!"

"Yeah, whatever. See you at supper. I hope you don't stink."

"We'll find out, won't we?" you muttered, sotto voce, but he was already gone.

~*~*~*~

It was a beautiful day in September, and you heard him far before he knew you had. When you turned to look at Idia, floss wound around your fingers, he started. "Is my stealth that bad?"

You gave him the ghost of a smile. "You're not as quiet as you think you are." He hasn't cottoned on that you can hear what's in his headphones, if they aren't set just right on his head, and you aren't about to tell him. The face he makes when you pick him out so easily was too good to lose.

He nodded, fidgeted, looked at the spread on the table. "What are you doing?"

"Well, she's got to dry. So I'm working on this pattern until the top coat goes on."

'She' was a currently eyeless, disembodied head, that you'd picked up along with her body in a second hand store for a pittance. You'd unstrung her, scrubbed her clean, and now were putting on a face to match her sweet if imperious expression, a bratty princess of a girl in miniature. You hadn't realized you'd liked dolls until you'd seen her. But, when you had, your breath fled your throat in the same way it had only once since coming here.

He looked, but knew better than to touch. He did a little bit of craft work himself, mostly model painting, and wasn't about to muss your hard work. "She's... nice?" He didn't quite get the appeal, despite having two vinyl dolls you knew of stowed carefully in their packages under his bed. When you'd asked, he just muttered that they were anime characters and didn't come out except for photos because something something collectibles something resale value. Boys.

"I could do better. But it's enough. Thank you for letting me borrow the painting set up."

"Y... welcome." He squinted at the embroidery, finally noticing something. "Are those bones?"

In the center of each withered, poisonous blossom in your embroidery hoop, you'd stitched a tiny vertebra to serve as the center. "Yeah?"

"Why?"

"Why not?"

He wasn't ready to push it any further. "If you want..." He hesitated, and stumbled, and you waited until he just brought out his tablet to tap it out on a screen instead. "You can come do that in Board Game Club, if you want. There's a window. Azul shouldn't mind."

"I'll join you after I gear up and put the sealant on her. Thank you for inviting me." You gave him your best, most dazzling smile. "You know how much I like when you include me in your stuff. I know it's not always easy for you; how shy you are and all."

He squeaked and looked away, and you continued. "I should be there in about an hour. Make sure Azul doesn't keep up trying to wager me in chess. I can't fucking play worth a damn and he knows it."

He smirked. "He likes easy marks. Maybe try and get goo-"

You flicked a bone at him, and it hit him square on the nose as he yelped.

~*~*~*~

Welcome, October. Coolness and colour, a certain something on the breeze that felt like a home you'd never let go. Even if it hadn't quite hit the dorms the same way as they main area of the school. (Those little fairies that ran the weather machine didn't seem to believe in seasons for the dorms, or perhaps Crowley gave them a chewing out after the spring?) In amongst the Heartslabyul roses, you'd think it was still summer, and you weren't one to let a day of warmth go.

"Oh, in this chapel of ritual, smells of dead human sacrifices from the altar..."

"Stop that."

You looked up at Riddle, who'd found you in your secluded corner. "Why?"

"You can't sing and the lyrics are awful."

"Is there a rule against that?"

He nodded. "The queen gets to approve all music."

"Ah, of course, mine rosen liege. My petaled monarch. Emperor Rosa." A collar appeared on your neck, and you did not slow down. "Cardiac Sovereign. Dauphine De la Coeur. I can do this all day, Riddle; that collar don't do shit cause I ain't magic."

The colour was high on his cheeks. "Is it your job to annoy me?"

"Oh, you got me. I wake up and spend every moment thinking 'How do I best piss off Riddle Roseheart? How about I stand outside his door and blast nightcore from a boombox?' "

He narrowed his eyes at you. "Stop joking."

You laughed. "Yeah. I only do that with Shoenheit."

That managed to get a bit of a smile out of him. "Why are you being a pest over here, and not at your own dorm?"

"I'm just doing crafts, man."

"While sitting on the grass."

"Yeah, man. Won't be any grass to sit on soon enough. Made sure to not be on the croquet grounds or anything."

He looked at the mess of foam and ribbon around you. "What are you even doing?"

You looked down, and back up at him. "Crafts?"

"More specifically, before I kick you out for being awful."

You held up a padded frame, that you were carefully wrapping a satin ribbon around the many bars of it. "What does that look like?"

He just glared instead of admitting he didn't know, so you got to your feet and held the frame over your chest, the shape clarifying by being pressed over what it mimicked. "It's ribs. It'll tie on with more ribbon. Might put beads and stuff on it too."

He looked for a beat before nodding. "For later this month?"

"Indeed."

"... Continue, then. But be quiet!"

He was nice enough to remove the collar before he left, but not nice enough to leave it off as soon as you resumed singing to yourself once you'd assumed he was out of earshot.

~*~*~*~

"Hey, Lil?”

"Yeah?"

You looked over the riot of cheery pumpkins and Far East aesthetics that had sprung from your lawn. "You should've asked me, first."

Lil smiled at you. "But then you would have said no."

"I wouldn't have. But," you guestured to the papier mache dragon, "Really, my dude? This isn't what I would have picked at all. I'm not going to match."

"You're working on a costume? Already?" He lit up. "What's it going to be?"

"You'll see."

"Do I get a costume?"

You looked down at your not-cat. "Grimm, I didn't think you'd want one."

"I do now!" He scrambled to your shoulder and tugged at your hair, wailing. "Costume! Costume!"

You rolled your eyes. "Stop that, before I sell you to Lil to practice recipes on."

~*~*~*~

Grimm was no help. He changed his mind every few minutes on what he wanted. At least your incorporeal roommates were a sweet help, finally gearing him up with a hat by the beginning of the week.

"Do you still need one, Yuu?" The middling ghost, the one neither plump nor skeletal, seemed concerned.

"No, babe. I've been working on this since..." August, you think. "I'm good. I hope I can get a week out of it. I could at least do a different face each day."

Realization dawned across his face. "That's what that was for? I see. I guess you won't need..."

Oh, he made you a costume. Layers and layers of rotten gauze from the curtains, a spindrift take on the bedsheet ghost.

"Hey, I can use this, don't worry. Can you stoke the fire? I've got to dye this to match, I'll need some water boiled."

~*~*~*~

There's too many fucking people. You don't know any of them, they're loud, and they cram in wherever you need to go. But their fussing over you, their asking for pictures is nice. If only...

"Hey, are you lost, kid?" You lean down and reach a hand out to a fearful-looking six-year-old. "I can help you find someone who can help?"

He promptly burst into tears and collided into Floyd as he ran away.

"Hey there itty bitty. You need an adult? Hold on." Even with Floyd... being Floyd, he was a hell of a more welcome sight to the kid, and soon had him balanced on a shoulder to yell for his parents. "Who's under all that?"

"Your favourite shrimp, you overgrown string bean."

Floyd make an o of surprise and flicked the veil up. "It is you under all that! See, kid, She's not scary. She's pretty."

The kid simply eyed him dubiously before going back to trying to wave his parents down to get away from these lunatics.

All your hard work paid off beautifully. A mass of bones, beads and decay, a beautifully jeweled skeleton crowned with a fine halo of gold-and-bone spines and dried flowers. You rattled gently with every step, eyes staring out from a painted skull. They only thing you regretted was Riddle catching you earlier. Even if he hadn't intentionally steered it that way himself, everyone would assume you'd intentionally went to match Heartslabyul. Even more, now that you'd turned those curtains into a veil, even if you'd stuck all the bone and garnet drops you could onto the edges.

"Thank you, Floyd." You leaned up towards the kid. "Didn't mean to scare you, little darling."

The kid just stared at you in fear, and fortunately his parents came along to claim him, leaving you and Floyd by yourself.

"Shrimpie~" He'd scooped you up to replace the kid in his arms before you could protest. "You're so cute like this! Let's go to the alchemy room."

"What's in the alchemy room, Floyd." At this point you were used to him just... hauling you wherever. And you’d found that if you went along with the lighter end of it, he took you seriously when you said no. Weirdo he was, he'd at least gathered that you'd hang out willingly if he didn't push it.

"Oh, well you look so nice! You'll look much nicer in the water tube than the dummy we have in there."

"There are several reasons that can't work, Floyd. Least of it is I only breathe air."

"You're a ghost right now, you don't breathe at all."

"This outfit would not survive a dunking. I'm not sure it'll last the week if I don't repair it every night."

He kept smiling at you. "Even better! Wearing nothing at all on Halloween! Everyone would take even more pictures."

"Yeah yeah, and you have nothing at all in your room if I want to speed that up." You flicked his nose. "Put me down and we can walk over and check how it's going."

"Excuse me?" A stranger. "Can I take a picture of you and your boyfriend like that."

"I'm not her boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend. Go ahead though."

~*~*~*~

"What are you working on?"

Idia's voice was slightly muffled under the pumpkin head. "People kept calling my projection 'cute'. Idiots! They don't know the true fear of Pumpkin Hollow. So I'm adjusting the projection mapping so it's less cute, and more accurate."

"Hm. It seems fine to me as it is."

"You would think that. You don't care if there is a cuteness to things that are scary."

"There's beauty and sweetness in even death." You thought for a moment. "This is for that series you sat me down for? You got mad when I played with the toys?"

"Those. Are. Collecta-" he stopped when he whirled on you, faltering into silence. You really wished you could see the face he was making, he made such sweet faces, especially when he looked at you. You craved them, wanted him to look only at you with those expressions.

You smiled at him. "There's no use in leaving a toy in a box! I don't buy anything I don't intend to play with."

"Ah. Errrrrrrrrghhhmmm." He turned back to his work, took a deep breath, and turned back around. "You watched them, would you give me feedback?"

"Sure. Could you lean down a little?"

He did, and you carefully pulled off the pumpkin, revealing - nothing. No head at all.

You laughed. "Turn that off."

"Why?"

"I just opened your box. Time to play."

He made a strangled noise and started back, looking this way and that. "Right now? Anyone could come in!"

"Just for a moment! How can I give you a kiss if I can't see where I'm aiming?"

His head flickered into view, with a face full of mischief. "... Just one?"

~*~*~*~

"What happened to your makeup?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, model boy." You looked Vil up and down. "You're actually pretty hot like that. It's a miracle."

"Of course you would only find me attractive when I look like a corpse." He rolled his eyes hard enough to sprain. "Do I need to go lie down in a glass coffin too? Stay very still while you actually work up the courage to touch me?"

You snorted. "You wish I would touch you, you overblown jackass."

"With you looking like that? I'd die."

"Bite me, asshole."

"You'd like it if I did."

Your tone grew playful. "Is that a promise for later?"

"Ugh." His shudder was too exaggerated to be anything but an act. "Go ask your ugly little playmate for a bite, we all know what gross shit you get up to."

"You're just mad it's not you."

He pointed a perfectly manicured nail at your painted nose. "You're just mad I want nothing to do with you."

"Then why are you even talking to me?"

"I- why am I talking to you. Go away."

You did, but not before pulling on his cape to wrinkle it.

~*~*~*~

You had a dreadful feeling things were about to get worse. Call it intuition, or paranoia. But with any luck, that would change after a good night's sleep.

(It did not.)

~*~*~*~ These fuckers were getting exhausting. What a grand idea, picking unknown flowers to stick in your hair for selfies! That wasn't an excellent way to come down with a hideous case of contact poisoning at all. You had to swat one girl's hand away from a bed of monkshood, reciting symptoms of aconite poisoning at her until she stalked off in a huff.

And futzing around with the decorations! The only reason you didn't outwardly congratulate Leona on trying to rip apart a bunch of tourists was that murder is supposed to be bad, no matter how irritating and disrespectful the murder victims were. Even you knew better than to go around fondling random ears and tails!

(That's why you'd made the anatomy books in the library your friends. Far more polite than going up to a fellow student and saying, "May I feel around your skull for a few hours to satisfy my scientific curiosity? No one at home has ears like that and I'm very curious about the underlying muscle structures." )

Better see what's going on everywhere else.

~*~*~*~

You got up in tiptoe and lightly touched his arm. "Hey, Floyd?"

"??? Yes, Shrimpie?" His face instantly brightening, he dropped the absolutely delighted Magicammer he'd had pressed to the shelf and turned to you, leaning in as you crooked your finger.

You whispered in his ear, "Why waste magic on them when you can do so much more with your fists?"

He shone like the sun as he pressed his cheek to yours in lieu of something more intimate. "You always know just what to do."

~*~*~*~

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE."

The crowd of idiots instead turned on you with flash photography. "Another ghost! This'll get so many likes!"

"I MEAN IT!" Blinking away the spots from your eyes and casting all good sense to the wind, you grabbed a fire poker from inside your bedroom door and started swinging. They laughed and clapped - and only stepped back when you got the damned thing stuck in the wall while taking a swing.

"What an excellent show!" And more. Fucking. Pictures. How in the fuck Vil deals with this shit without murdering everyone in a hundred-foot radius, you'd love to know.

"I SAID-" yank "GET THE FUCK-" yank "OUT OF MY HOUSE!" The force of finally pulling the poker from the wall sent you careening onto your ass, and Grimm only stopped long enough to laugh at you before resuming his own ineffective charge. You stumbled to your feet, muttering. "Stupid little mother fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking..."

"Oh, it's a chase game! Let's go!" And they all fucking scattered into different rooms as you watched them in disbelief.

"I am going to kill everyone in this building and then myself for good measure."

~*~*~*~

"Leave."

"Aren't you going to scare me, Miss Ghost?" This last idiot was joyfully skipping around a bedroom that you'd had the ghosts empty out, nattering into her phone. A livestream, you think.

You're in you goddamned pajamas. "Sure. We don't use this room because the floor's not sound. Get the fuck out and leave before you fall through to the next floor."

The girl instead started to hop in place. "Oooooo, so scary! You'll have to try better than that!"

You rushed her. You probably would have throttled her (and wound up with a new ghostly roommate in the process) but as she backed up, your leg went through the floor where she'd weakened it, which left her cackling.

"You weren't kidding! Bye now!" And she just fucking left you there like the wretched asshole she was.

~*~*~*~

"I'm so sorry, Yuu."

"Nothing to be sorry about, Mal."

He rested his head on your bare knee and looked up at you. "If I hadn't picked your home as a stamp location, people wouldn't be invading this dorm, and you wouldn't have been injured."

"You fixed me up, didn't you?" He was the one who had pulled you rightways, and shut the scratches on your leg. Of course, he could have left your socks on to do that, but hey, those had been fixed too. You reached down and put your hand on his cheek, rubbing circles by his eye while he stared up at you like an adoring dog.

"This was supposed to be fun for you, so you could have a perfect Halloween."

"That's still a few days away yet. There's still time. And hey."

He blinked up at you as you leaned your face in close, flushing faintly as you did. "Any luck, we'll all make it to November without assault charges."

~*~*~*~

"Yuu?"

You subconsciously growled like a rabid animal as you turned to Lilia with your eye twitching.

"By all the queen's powers." He shrank back. "You alright?"

"Magimons broke the lock on our bedroom and shook her awake last night." Grimm was, by some miracle, in a better mood than you; content to be a comforting weight in your arms and be your anger translator.

"They took," you added, "my groceries."

Lil looked at you in blank shock. "What about the wards on your doors?"

"That's for magic, not fucking morons with no sense of personal space." If you made it through 'til November without actually biting someone's throat out and getting put down like a mad dog, you'd be sincerely surprised. "You of all people should know that."

"Hey, I put them back up after I drop in. You want to go sit with Malleus today? I think you need it."

"Nope. If I snap at him he'll take it to heart. Or just kill everyone who's not staff or student because they upset me."

"No he wouldn't."

"We both know he would."

"He would not because that would be bad press for the kingdom."

"... well, damned if I ever though I'd say this, but thank god for politics."

~*~*~*~

You stare at the empty plinths as everyone started yelling and scrambling. You look to the rubble of the statues, the bases, to Cater, and back to the rubble, nudging what may have once been a staff with you toe.

"And it's not even for a fucking political movement."

~*~*~*~

"Yuu, if we can get rid of the magicam monsters, we can have the party!" Grimm smiled up at you, all sharp teeth and blue eyes. "Aren't you happy?"

You didn't have the heart to tell him that at this point, you'd rather they'd just cancel everything and simply sleep through till All Saint's. Fuck your costume work. Fuck the party. Fuck everything. If you see another jack o lantern you will smash it. Fuck this holiday. You're so tired.

"Yuu, do you have ideas on how to drive the magicam monsters away?"

You stared past Cater's ear because you didn't feel like looking anyone in the face. "Tried to brain a few with a fire poker. Th'just thought it was funny."

This was met with the sound of air sucked through teeth, and a warm hand on your shoulder. "Come with me please!" And Ortho pulled you away with the force of a vaudeville hook.

"You're having a very bad time!" So sweet, so earnest. Right now he was the only person here who could be that chipper and you not want to put their nose out the back of their skull.

You gave him a weary smile. "What was your first clue, honey."

"She keeps kicking in her sleep. When she sleeps. And she's all snappy and horrible!"

You gave Grimm a single light warning shake. "Shut up, Grimm."

"Would you like to stay over so that you can rest properly?" He was hovering directly in front of your face. "Maybe if you're somewhere you won't be woken up, you'll feel better."

You raised an eyebrow and stared over at Idia, who was trying very hard to pay attention to both your conversation and his. "Shouldn't you clear that with someone first?"

Ortho rolled his eyes, the effect on his little boy face frankly hilarious. "Oh, he'd be so upset you have you over. Deeply so. He wouldn't get a wink of sleep with you there." He leaned in. "Except he would, because you wouldn't do anything to keep him up with me there, would you?"

You wheezed. "You think so little of me, Ortho."

"I like you very much even if what you both get up to is gross."

"Of every boy in this school, Yuu. You picked that one."

Ortho glared down at Grimm. "That is my brother you're talking about."

"Stop it. Can we check back in?"

~*~*~*~

"So we're going to run round and scare the piss out of them?"

Jade nodded. "That is the idea, yes."

"... Can I help?"

"Of course, Yuu." Jade smiled his smile that didn't reach more than a millimetre beneath his eyes. "But we've agreed you can't have any blunt objects. For everyone's safety. And the school's reputation, of course.."

"... Yeah, that's for the best."

~*~*~*~

"Can you guys watch Grimm for the evening?"

"Of course." Mal beamed at you from his seat on the Ramshackle steps. "Where will you be that he doesn't want to be?"

"I don't like the horse."

"You ride horses?" Idia was sitting between Mal's legs as Malleus carefully arranged the bright hair into a high ponytail.

"Epel taught me." You paused for a minute. "Do you?"

"Mother made me learn. I haven't in years."

"Makes sense." He didn't like the outdoors, after all. "Mal, how'd you convince him to let you touch his hair? He only lets me do that in private."

"It will look nicer coming out of his pumpkin helmet if arranged higher." Mal crooked his mouth and dragged his lacquered nails along Idia's scalp, making a soft noise when Idia gasped, shivered and abruptly stood up.

"Nope nope nope nope no more of that-"

"May I at least put the elastic in?" Mal held up a black band. "It's fireproof."

He instead snatched it and ran for the library as fast as he could without cracking the armour. You and Mal watched him leave.

"Hm."

"Mal?"

He was still watching the blue light vanish into the distance. "I think I can see the appeal." His dreamy smile gained a sharp edge. "What a delicious sound."

You snickered. "God, I know, right? You should hear some of the other ones I've got out of him."

"You're both disgusting."

~*~*~*~

You hadn't worked out an actual story for this one, just your ghostly roommates and Grimm telling everyone to leave the statues alone. But some asshole, wearing aviator shades and the ugliest piecemeal hoodie you'd ever seen, mounted a plinth to start taking selfies. And once that started, more got the idea, and joined him, trying to nudge the statue away to make room.

So, that's where you came in, pulling into sight at the end of the drive, in tarnished gilt and rotten splendor, jeweled Death on a pale horse.

Sunglasses looked at you and froze, before snapping another picture.

Fucking pictures. You're so sick of pictures.

You snapped the reins and nudged your heels, and who knew anyone on two legs could move that fast? Though potentially being run down by a warhorse was great motivation to move thine arse, as it were. And, thank god, everyone else booked it out the gate after him.

It only took a little maneuvering to lock the gate while still up on a pale horse named Beans, and now? Time to take him to his stable and go the fuck to sleep. Maybe through past tomorrow. Fuck Halloween.

~*~*~*~

You were riding your merry way when a familiar voice called out to you. "You dropped some loot!"

"What did I lose, Idia?" His little speakers mimicking the clang of armour were working overtime as he jogged up beside you. Once he reached you, he held up... a shoe.

"Huh." You looked down, and you had indeed lost a shoe while charging down a bunch of Magicam-obsessed assholes on a warhorse. "Thank you." That's when you gave Idia a level gaze, and stuck you leg out at him.

He swallowed back his noise of shock, and shaking, took your stockinged foot and slid the shoe back into place.

"Good boy."

He was turning from shell pink to a deep red that rivaled the roses in Heartslabyul. But that didn't mean he didn't know how to keep playing when emotions were high. Before letting go, he leaned down and kissed the top of your foot.

Now it was your turn to go red; a wonder the painted skull didn't simply melt off of your face.

~*~*~*~

"Shrimpie~"

You took a breath and prepared yourself. Scoopsies was inevitable.

True to form, Floyd had his whole conversation with you in a bridal carry. "We're gonna have the party!~ We chased them all away!~"

"That's..." Honestly, despite all the rage and pain this week had caused, you were rather happy about the news. "Nice."

"Ah - where'd your face go?" He leaned in, and you stopped him from getting too close with a finger pressed to his lips.

"I didn't feel up to wearing everything." Your embroidered gown and painted skull was replaced with a simple back veil and black dress. "I kind of hate this whole holiday right now and I'm ready to kick the next pumpkin I see."

He nodded, kissing your fingertip as he did. "I can help you after. But we need this all for the parade." He brightened. "You should paint up and get on the horse again for it!" He smiled, full of dreamy fondness and not a small amount of hunger. "I heard what you did to the magicam monsters... I wish I could have seen."

"Hey, I heard you didn't do too badly yourself." You leaned in conspiratorially. "Anyone pee themselves?"

He smiled like the sun post-eclipse. "Yup!"

~*~*~*~

Epel had been nice enough to help you kit out Beans in a fancy black harness, so in amongst the crowd of costumed students, you were both equally eye-catching. And hell, pictures weren't so bad right now. People were keeping a distance, murmuring to each other as they aimed their cameras. You thought you were getting a dirty look or two from Vil for stealing his thunder, but he had himself on the prow of a ship! It wasn't comparable.

"So," you said, leaning down a little, "How are you handling this?"

Idia looked up at you, you thought. "The mask makes it easy. They're looking at the costume, not me."

"I'm glad it helps. I wish you'd take it off, but you being comfortable is more important."

"What? You want me to ruin the effect by taking the mask off? Clearly you have no respect for the holiday." His voice had the sweet, bubbling quality that came when he was excited and happy, and it warmed you to hear it.

"Oh, no, of course not. But why would I want to taste a plastic kiss,” you said, reaching a hand down to run the trailing ribbon of his hair through your fingers, “when I could taste you instead?"

You had to give him credit, he only faltered for a moment before continuing. "Right now? In front of everyone?"

"I would if you'd let me, right now." You lowered your voice. "And worse."

He stifled a groan and only walked funny for another ten minutes.

~*~*~*~

"I thought you didn't like horses." The stables were in sight, but Idia had turned up, surprising you.

He rolled his eyes, and held his arms out. "Dismount, fair maiden."

What.

"I mean it. Your Pumpkin Knight awaits."

You shook your head, voice soft. "Baby, no."

"I'm trying to be romantic. Like your novels."

"Idia."

He stared back at you, sour-faced. "What."

"I outweigh you by at least sixty pounds."

"I can do this. I carry Ortho around all the time."

"Ortho's chassis is mostly fibreglass and aluminum. I can carry Ortho. I think Grim could carry Ortho."

He took a step forward. "Do you want me to leave you on the horse or not."

"His name is Beans." But, you managed to dismount into Idia's arms, where he stood stock-still and trembling.

"Kkc."

"Babe? Put me down before your back goes out."

His knees gave out first, and he crumpled beneath you as you both yelped.

"You alright?"

"hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

You crawled off his chest and he could actually breathe again.

"Better?"

After a few breaths, he managed a weak smile. "Maybe kiss it better."

Beans beat you to it, snuffling at Idia's face to make sure he wasn't dead.

~*~*~*~

You are not much of a party person. You like them, but the ideal party is a few friends hanging around in the same room, chatting at a reasonable volume and then going home to go the fuck to sleep. This was a little much.

But you know what this party had that you hadn't seen in what felt like years? Cute girls. In cute costumes! You've been flirting your ass off, with decent success; it turns out that the Magicam Live you did with Vil weeks ago had paid off in the form of smiles and fluttered eyelashes as girls crowded around you to hear tales of how fucking obnoxious you could be in this school and get away with it because you had friends in high places.

At least, until you caught something out of the corner of your eye, and you stopped. "Hey, I gotta check on someone - raise your hand if you like boys. Okay, you see -" You stopped and pointed at your poor, unsuspecting target. "With the blue-black hair and the painted spade? That's Deuce, he doesn't know how to talk to girls worth a damn, so give him some slack. But he's a sweetheart, you won't regret it."

"What about the redhead?"

"Ace is a prick but he's delightful. Chat him up too." With that, you went to check on Idia, huddled into a corner after an attempted force-feeding.

"You alright, babe?"

He nodded. "They're too much. But I'm alright now."

You leaned back against a nearby chair, looking him up and down. "You sure you aren't going to eat anything? I don't think anyone's going to care too much if you have your face out."

He remained completely still, and you realized you could hear a faint whirring. "Idia. Have you been using the robot double all evening."

"... I swapped out ten minutes ago."

You made a noise and he flinched. "I was going to swap back in after it calmed down!"

"... No you weren't."

"Okay, no I wasn't. But I was there for a while. I have proof, I brought plates back with me."

"You could have just told me. It's been a hell of a lot for you, I know what you're like."

Idia - well, his robotic avatar - shrugged. "If you're going to lecture me... come by and do it here."

You stopped. "You really want me to yell at you in person?"

"I want you to come by. If you want. You can stay as long as you want... if you want. I have snacks, and movies, and games that even you could play."

You snorted. "Oh, the siren call of a fucking nerd trying so hard to woo his chosen..."

"I changed my mind actually, you can't come."

"Aww."

"... That's a lie." He paused. "You can even take the Yume Twins out."

Those vinyl dolls he never let you touch. You throw your veil back and kissed the stupid plastic pumpkin head. "It's a date."

~*~*~*~

"Yuu?"

You peered at Malleus from around a stack of Tupperware. "Mal?"

"You.. enjoyed it all, despite everything?"

"Despite everything." You hefted the stack towards him. "Would you like to help? I want to grab stuff from the party that'll keep at room temperature."

He absently flicked a finger, sending the dishes swirling around to settle in a stack in midair, before placing a hand on your shoulder. "I have a... request."

"Anything," you said, and you regretted saying it as his breath hitched.

"Would you..." His voice faltered, and instead he simply wrapped you in a tight embrace, leaning down to bury his nose in your hair. You could feel him, chest heaving, scenting your greased hair through tulle, murmuring something against your scalp.

"Malleus."

He stopped, but did not move.

"No spells."

"You would not forgive me if I tried." You could feel his smile against your hair.

"I would not." You pulled back enough to look at him, and nearly froze at his besotted gaze before he schooled it into his more usual face. "Mal, you know you only feel this strong because I'm your first friend, right?"

"Does it matter? It is sincere."

And that makes it so much worse. "You know I don't feel about you like that."

"..." The grief that flickered across his face was enough to shatter a stone heart. "To stand with you and hold you is enough."

And they said fairies can't lie. They could, they were just terrible at it.

"You said you were going to ask for something?"

"... Not anymore. I doubt you would give it."

He vanished into thin air in a swirl of wind, and the Tupperware clattered to the steps, the spell holding them gone.

~*~*~*~

The nice thing about Idia's room is that, being a prefect, he had an attached bathroom to scrub the paint off of your face. It was a monochrome murder in the sink, splatters of grey with the occasional pinprick of red where you'd disturbed the new bumper crop of pimples from painting up as a skull for a week. Thank fuck that was over with. Even if the day proper had been lovely, the events of the week had thoroughly soured you on Halloween.

"You alright?" Idia poked his head in, long since divested of armour.

"Yup. How'd you get that shit off so fast? You got a suiting-up machine hidden somewhere?"

"It's less complicated than you'd think. Cosplay magic."

"That's nice. Unbutton me."

"... wha."

You looked at him via the mirror, meeting his wide eyes and shimmying in place. "Unbutton me. I can't reach them all myself."

"How'd you get that on every day?" He hesitantly walked behind, eyeing the row down your back as though it would burn him at the touch.

"I have roommates, remember?"

"Mmh." He finally undid the first three, before flicking his gaze back to yours in the mirror. "A... Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't ask, otherwise." You kept looking, as he took a breath and resumed. "Idia."

He paused.

"Keep going, I'm just going to chat at you for a bit." Two more. "You know I..." How to phrase this. "I don't intend to stay mint on card forever, you know. You can take me out and play."

He twitched, but kept going. "Maybe I don't want to damage you. There's only one of you, after all."

"I'm not so breakable." You had one side of you face completely clear, the other still smeared grey in the creases. "Would you rather stay mint condition, yourself?"

"..." He took a moment to gather himself, staring at the exposed skin of your back. "Maybe I want to... admire a bit. Get to know my- your- Uh."

You waited with a soft smile, until he found the words. "No one said you have to play straight away when you take something out of the package. Right?" He placed an experimental hand on the expanse of flesh between bra band and waistband, and did not draw away.

"Right."

"... Maybe I just want to hold you a bit before we play."

What a sweet boy you had. "Take all the time you need to. Even if we never play like that, I like you. Spending time with you is what I want."

You could see the motes of pink flickering through his hair. "Can I hold you now?"

"Of course."

He slid his hands under your dress, around your waist - then grabbed your soft, flabby tummy in both hands and squeezed. "Soft~"

You squealed with laughter. "What are you doing?"

"It's bare skin that's neutral territory," he huffed, before hugging your back to him and resting his chin on your shoulder. "And it's warm, too."

"Not so much as you. Keep me warm, will you? It's getting so damned cold at night."

He buried his face in your hair. "I can do that."

~*~*~*~

You woke to someone banging at the door.

"Son of a bitch." You managed to free yourself from Idia's sleeping grasp and make it to the door as a familiar voice started up. "Shroud, your tin can brother's already helping with clean-up, if you skip out because of a stupid game I will-"

You opened the door and looked levelly into Vil's face, which twisted in surprise. He gave you a once over (unshaved legs, mussed hair, boxer briefs from the men's section and a blue-black striped shirt that was clearly not yours) and then peeked over your shoulder at Idia (dead asleep, smiling faintly, possibly naked under the blankets). He kept looking between the two of you with increasing disbelief and horror, until he stepped back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Good for you."

"Thanks." Your face still hadn't changed.

"It's twelve thirty. If you're not both out helping clean up by three, I'm telling everyone."

"That's not much of a threat."

"Maybe to you. Shroud!"

Idia shuddered awake, bleariness washed away by terror as he saw Vil in the door and covered himself in the blankets.

"Be out helping cleanup by three or I'm telling everyone exactly why you're late." With that, he stalked off and you shut the door, mirroring his nose pinch.

"Dramatic bastard, ain't he? Even when he's being nice."

"How is that nice?" He only stopped shivering when you sat back down on the bed.

"Two and a half hours, Idia."

He blinked at you.

"How much can we do in two and a half hours?"

Realization dawned, and he started snickering as he dragged you in close.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland fanfiction #idia shroud #malleus draconia

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